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Friday, September 18, 2009

Me, elsewhere

Yesterday, I updated my power rankings for Beyond the Boxscore...and for the first time in weeks, the Reds do not rank last! The reason? I've (finally) added catcher fielding to the dataset. Ryan Hanigan and crew have done a great job behind the plate this year, at least based on SB, WP, and Error data, and that was enough to springboard the Reds above the badly-slumping Pirates. So...."Yay, we're not in last place anymore!"

Also, yesterday was my debut as a contributer at Red Reporter. I posted a very short profile on Lonny Frey, a Reds Hall of Famer who passed away last Sunday. Excerpt:

Frey was purchased from the Chicago Cubs prior to hisage-27 season in 1938. Previously at shortstop, he would go on to play almost exclusively at second base for the next seven seasons. He really blossomed in 1939 when he gave up switch-hitting and focused entirely on hitting form the left side. He put up two consecutive 6+ WAR seasons and helping lead the team to two consecutive World Series. He then followed with three consecutive 4 WAR seasons--all told, his time with the Reds was easily the best stretch of the three-time All Star's career.

Being an independent blogger since 2006, I've had plenty of opportunities and offers to move to or join other blogs over years. And I've always declined, as I was content writing here. I could do what I wanted, set my own schedule, and not worry about any feeling of commitment and such. And given the uncertainty about my job future from 2006-2008, I didn't want to make any promises that I couldn't keep.

But I think what has happened over the past year and a half is that life has become so busy that I really just don't have time to run my own blog anymore...and so, my twice-monthly posting activity has resulted in very little traffic. And even worse, there's been very little interaction compared to how things used to be when I could post more often. I think I've finally come to grips with that at the same time that my personal and professional life has become substantially more stable (very busy, but stable!). Furthermore, contributing over at Beyond the Boxscore has helped me realize what I'm missing--interaction, mostly, and the feeling of not having to wait for a link in order for someone to read my stuff.

As a result of all of that, I finally decided to approach Slyde about joining on with his crew. I've collaborated with Slyde on a number of projects over the years, many of which have unfortunately never seen the light of day. But I'm very happy that he agreed to let me join up on very relaxed terms--the frequency of my posting over there is unlikely to be much better than it has been over here.

Basement Dwellers isn't going away, though. The Reds WAR position review series, for example, is going to continue to be posted here. And I'll continue to link to my stuff on the other sites as a way of tracking what I'm up to, as well as post the occasional short piece that isn't appropriate for other sites. But the majority of my Reds stuff will likely be posted at Red Reporter moving forward, while more general baseball work will continue to be posted at Beyond the Boxscore.

So, this isn't goodbye, but it does mark a change in how the site will be used for the immediate future. I do want to thank everyone who has contributed the 200,000+ page views and 150,000+ unique visits to this site since 2006. I've had a great time here and I hope you've enjoyed it too. See you at RR and BtB. :)